Tempura

Despite its humble strip mall setting on the Boston Post Road in Orange, Wasabi Japanese Restaurant, owned by Tom and Grace Ke, casts a long shadow. There are several Connecticut restaurants with Wasabi in their names, including a Wasabi in North Branford, a Wasabi in Kent and a Wasabi Chi in Norwalk that closed in 2012. None share common ownership. Sometimes in “Best Of” polls, the wrong Wasabi has been credited. But whenever I discuss the sushi scene with folks who really know it, there seems to be agreement that Wasabi in Orange might be the best sushi joint in the state.

Despite its humble strip mall setting on the Boston Post Road in Orange, Wasabi Japanese Restaurant, owned by Tom and Grace Ke, casts a long shadow. There are several Connecticut restaurants with Wasabi in their names, including a Wasabi in North Branford, a Wasabi in Kent and a Wasabi Chi in Norwalk that closed in 2012. None share common ownership. Sometimes in “Best Of” polls, the wrong Wasabi has been credited. But whenever I discuss the sushi scene with folks who really know it, there seems to be agreement that Wasabi in Orange might be the best sushi joint in the state.

Weird things have been happening to Chinese restaurants across our state. Some have morphed into all-you-can-eat all-day-long buffets (some of which, if hit at busy times, are quite good) while others, seeking diversity, maybe, have become pan-Asian. The problem with the latter is that nods to Japanese or Malaysian cuisine, for instance, are tokenism. John Kim decided that sushi should have more of a presence. His new restaurant in West Hartford is called, appropriately enough, I Love Sushi and offers fans a smorgasbord of raw fish, with a few tempura and hibachi dishes thrown in for good measure.

By CAROLE GOLDBERG, Special to The Courant and The Hartford Courant, December 2, 2010

Sakura Garden 345 N. Main St., West Hartford 860-231-8889, http://www.sakuragardenus.com It seems that West Hartford just can't get enough sushi. The newest purveyor is Sakura Garden Japanese Sushi & Seafood Buffet at Bishops Corner. Four of us went for the $14.95 all-you-can-eat weekday lunch and were pleased with the quality and variety of the offerings. THE VIBE: Everything you see in this large, multi-roomed restaurant is slick and shiny and gleaming and glitzy.

A flurry of telephone calls from worried readers greeted the change in ownership four months ago at Fuji Japanese Restaurant in West Hartford. The owner had retired; the sushi chef had gone back to Japan. Whether things were better or worse, the callers wouldn't say. It was just different. Every sushi chef has his own style in shaping the vinegared rice and pairing it with various toppings and fillings. How you respond to a particular chef's work is as individual as, well, responding to paintings by de Kooning and Monet.

A Darn Good Whacking Ralphie Cifaretto was whacked on "The Sopranos" last month, but actor Joe Pantoliano is alive and busy promoting his new restaurant in South Norwalk. Pantoliano, whose character not only was murdered but was dismembered, opened Bamboo in September in the trendy SoNo area along with Dan Solomon and Richard Pepe. The restaurant features Asian fusion or "confusion," as the owners like to say. The restaurant isn't Pantoliano's first dining venture. He started Grand Havana in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Unexpected good fortune is always sweet, and especially so in the reviewing business where restaurants are selected and friends committed often weeks in advance. Imagine, then, my thoughts when a planned Sunday visit to a vegetarian restaurant turned to dust in the parking lot -- a staffer had said the place would be open when it was closed -- and I had three hungry friends and a babysitter on the clock back home. What to do? Hightail it to Old Saybrook and Little Siam, a small Thai restaurant that had been generating a buzz among shoreline friends.

By CAROLE GOLDBERG, Special to The Courant and The Hartford Courant, December 2, 2010

Sakura Garden 345 N. Main St., West Hartford 860-231-8889, http://www.sakuragardenus.com It seems that West Hartford just can't get enough sushi. The newest purveyor is Sakura Garden Japanese Sushi & Seafood Buffet at Bishops Corner. Four of us went for the $14.95 all-you-can-eat weekday lunch and were pleased with the quality and variety of the offerings. THE VIBE: Everything you see in this large, multi-roomed restaurant is slick and shiny and gleaming and glitzy.

Food trends come, and food trends go. But if a trend hits the scene and refuses to leave, you can be pretty sure that one of two things has happened: Either it got sucked up into the pseudo-culinary vortex that is American fast food (example: gorditas -- those magnificent boat-shaped handmade morsels of masa, now mainstreamed by Taco Bell), or it is so good, so different and so delicious that it gets added to the serious American gastronomic lexicon. Like sushi. Sure, there is good sushi, great sushi and bad sushi, and today it is everywhere.

Food trends come, and food trends go. But if a trend hits the scene and refuses to leave, you can be pretty sure that one of two things has happened: Either it got sucked up into the pseudo-culinary vortex that is American fast food (example: gorditas -- those magnificent boat-shaped handmade morsels of masa, now mainstreamed by Taco Bell), or it is so good, so different and so delicious that it gets added to the serious American gastronomic lexicon. Like sushi. Sure, there is good sushi, great sushi and bad sushi, and today it is everywhere.

Tomo 95 Japanese Steak House 339 Main St., Durham 860-349-0077 Scene and cuisine: Tomo means "very good friend," and our critic praised this restaurant for its friendly service and energetic staff. Dining in the tatami room, a small wood-paneled room, was private, quiet, and comfortable, he said, particularly because there was space cut away underneath the table allowing diners to sit upright and stretch their legs. He reported that the food was casual and inexpensive.

By MICHAEL GANNON Michael Gannon welcomes readers' suggestions from near and far for restaurants to visit. Drop him an e-mail at forkontheleft@hotmail.com. Visit The Courant's website, http://www.ctnow.com/dining, for previous reviews., November 16, 2003

875 Main St., Glastonbury 860-633-8400 Tue-Thur, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4:30-9:30 p.m. Fri and Sat, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4:30-10 p.m. Sun 4-9:30 p.m. Closed Monday Appetizers: $3.50-$6.50 Entrees: $5.50-$18.95 Desserts: $2-$4.50 edible. . tasty. . choice. . . exquisite. One of the best things about writing these columns is the assortment of random facts I discover while researching food. Did you know, for example, that the real name for Chilean sea bass is the Patagonian toothfish?

A Darn Good Whacking Ralphie Cifaretto was whacked on "The Sopranos" last month, but actor Joe Pantoliano is alive and busy promoting his new restaurant in South Norwalk. Pantoliano, whose character not only was murdered but was dismembered, opened Bamboo in September in the trendy SoNo area along with Dan Solomon and Richard Pepe. The restaurant features Asian fusion or "confusion," as the owners like to say. The restaurant isn't Pantoliano's first dining venture. He started Grand Havana in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Weird things have been happening to Chinese restaurants across our state. Some have morphed into all-you-can-eat all-day-long buffets (some of which, if hit at busy times, are quite good) while others, seeking diversity, maybe, have become pan-Asian. The problem with the latter is that nods to Japanese or Malaysian cuisine, for instance, are tokenism. John Kim decided that sushi should have more of a presence. His new restaurant in West Hartford is called, appropriately enough, I Love Sushi and offers fans a smorgasbord of raw fish, with a few tempura and hibachi dishes thrown in for good measure.

Tomo 95 Japanese Steak House 339 Main St., Durham 860-349-0077 Scene and cuisine: Tomo means "very good friend," and our critic praised this restaurant for its friendly service and energetic staff. Dining in the tatami room, a small wood-paneled room, was private, quiet, and comfortable, he said, particularly because there was space cut away underneath the table allowing diners to sit upright and stretch their legs. He reported that the food was casual and inexpensive.

Spring roll, soup and beef curry. That, plus nibbles of my daughter's chicken fried rice, has been my lunch order for years at Thai Gardens Restaurant in Middletown. So imprinted are these dishes on my taste memory that I had forgotten why I zeroed in on them in the first place. Anong Becker's recent sale of her restaurant to Nutiya Sripa gave me an opportunity to break out of the routine. But a meander through the dinner menu brought home to me just why I stick to the beef curry.

A flurry of telephone calls from worried readers greeted the change in ownership four months ago at Fuji Japanese Restaurant in West Hartford. The owner had retired; the sushi chef had gone back to Japan. Whether things were better or worse, the callers wouldn't say. It was just different. Every sushi chef has his own style in shaping the vinegared rice and pairing it with various toppings and fillings. How you respond to a particular chef's work is as individual as, well, responding to paintings by de Kooning and Monet.